Kokoro no Kagami
Rana- Hey-hi! It's RRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAANAAA! I recently learned how to roll my 'R's! LONG TIME NO SEE, HUH? If I go slow, I give anyone permission to hit me, shoot me with an arrow, or anything that they can think of!
Sandy- That's really stupid, idiot. Why would you purposefully try to sabotage yourself? Not that I'm complaining! I'm entering the 'permission to destroy you' thingy too! *Pulls out water gun with mysterious green bubbles coming out of it. Say hello to my little friend!
Rana- NOOOO! Inui Juice! I don't own Scar Face, the Beatles, Tootsie Rolls, Shugo Chara, Ghost Busters or Prince of tennis! And what the heck happened to Sandy?
Trivia: Did you know that the name was chosen randomly, since they were the only Japanese words I knew? It turns out that they sort of made sense. A MIRACLE! KISEKI! (Means Miracle)
Sandy- Please review! That's what makes Rana write! DO IT BEFORE I GET HER, MUAHAHAHA! Thanks, XxMichyBabyxX, for the review! I really like the pen name!
Chapter 10: Fool on the hill
Walking arm in arm with Kikumaru, Alex searched around for the main office. Tsubaki walked ahead with some distance with many chattering people between them. Alex still got the feeling that Tsubaki didn't like her much.
Along the way, Alex acquainted herself with her new surroundings. There were a couple of high gray colored buildings on the campus but not many. Other than that, there wasn't much to the school. It looked impressive from outside of the gates though. The many talking people made it hard for Alex to pay attention to anything though, her mind aching from the loud laughter and such. A part of her wished that they would go away or be quiet or spontaneously combust. Not that she wanted them to die, she just wanted to see it happen, but not to an animal. It was probably a form of animal cruelty and Alex really liked animals and wanted to be a zoo keeper one day. And then bam! Her head smacked onto something like a really smooth rock and the headache increased. She sent a glare up at Eiji who glanced at her with a sheepish smile. Wasn't he supposed to be guiding her with their arms linked and all?
"Sorry...but we're here!" True to his words, in front of them was a door. Alex couldn't read it though, still not yet very adept at reading Kanji.
"Well...that's good-is my forehead bleeding?" she felt a liquid on her forehead. It wasn't good, she could tell. What if her mind suddenly combusted because of an infection on the door, or if it the wound was open too long and she bled to death or something worse happened? Her mind flooded with the possibilities that Jordan had told her over the phone weeks before she came to Japan. All of them were more gruesome then the next. Whatever Eiji had said beside her was totally lost.
"Ares-Chan?" Alex snapped out of the daze once she felt a hand on her shoulder. Looking up she found that it was Eiji's hand. Could he have been...comforting her? He really was nice! "It's just paint."
"Oh..." she couldn't hide the disappointment in her voice. Since about a week ago she had gained a crush on Eiji and had secretly hoped that he may have liked her back. It was a little hope and pretty impossible but stranger has happened. She was weird and random and not really pretty or cute at all, but...still. Blinking, she stepped back and made a sound that was a lot like a squawk of a chicken. Eiji's face was right in front of hers! "Okay then!" she spun around to face the door.
After wiping off the mint green paint on her forehead with her sleeve, which she instantly regretted when her shirt became stained, she opened the door to the office. Her hand moved to Eiji's hand and squeezed. After getting her schedule, there would be no turning back. Inside of the office was a sour looking female with bright green, purple and blond hair and bored beetle black eyes(1). She glanced at Alex for a moment before waving her closer. Eiji, of course, followed her in.
"Welcome to Seishun Academy, one of the most famous schools in the Kantou region. What is your school related request?" The woman sounded extremely uninterested in what she was saying. It was almost rehearsed, actually. Alex fidgeted for a moment before glancing at Eiji for help. He was staring at the ground and rocking back and forth.
"I'm McCarthy Alex," The girl at the desk looked at her blankly. "Tatsuya Arisa?" The girl's eyes widened slightly, perhaps a nearly unnoticeable centimeter.
"Ah, right. One of the foreign transfer students. Here's your information and stuff," she slowly edged a thin manila folder full of paper towards the two students with the tips of her fingers. "In there is your schedule, your student id, and your papers."
The lady looked at something on her desk and used an orange mechanical pencil to write something on a yellow sticky note. Alex stared at the sticky note being handed to her, unable to read what was being written upside down.
"I think you're supposed to take it, Ares-Chan," whispered Eiji from beside her. He looked scared for some reason, as though the slightest tremor in his voice would activate some robot that might have killed him and everyone he loved(2). Alex secretly hoped he didn't want her to die. Shaking her head, she took the sticky note. It was, thank heavens, in English. It said 'Locker 22, floor three.'
"Thanks," said Alex, thanking the girl with a smile before almost walking away. Wondering why she almost got away?
"Hey, kid!" On top of the emo-lady's desk were to large dictionary sized books with faded leather coverings. Where had they come from? "You forgot these. They're your translators."
The rather short girl went up and inspected the two books. Both were in English. One said 'To translate in English to Japanese translator' and the other said 'Kanji for dummies.'
'Kanji for dummies' certainly seemed useful, but the translator book was unnecessary. She was already quite good at speaking Japanese.
"Uh...I don't think I need this one," she pushed back the translator. The emo-lady looked up at Alex, her purple and green high lights bouncing with her blond hair, and gave her a glare that said that she wasn't taking back the translator.
"Come on kid, that book has to go all the way to the other side of the academy, on the fifth floor for God's sake! I am not going to take it back all the way over there," she finished calmly, her arms crossed. The pose wasn't intimidating but had it's own fierceness to it. She glanced at Eiji, then the white walls and then the white walls of the room for advice; none of them were helpful. Sighing, she attempted to pick up the book.
"Whoa!" The full weight of the book slipped and dropped onto the floor like an elephant off of an Olympic diving board. Boom! The book slammed onto the floor and dust erupted out of the pages like volcano smoke. It stayed suspended in the air before evaporating in the air. "That's...kinda scary."
"You bet'cha," said the emo-lady with a sarcastic wink in her direction. Eiji jumped.
The full weight of the book was extremely heavy and so was the second book. It was like picking up her 95 pound little sister, Rita, and trying to carry her around the school and look for her class, or like anything heavy. Its fine at first but eventually your arms got tired and the edges(in the other case, her sisters shoes and elbows)started to stab.
"Ei-Eiji-kun!" The edge of one of the books started to choke her. "Please! H-help me! I'm gonna die!" Sure, maybe she exaggerating a bit, but if the book-choke went on longer, she probably would have been cut or bruised or been given a very serious red mark.
"Okay!" he took the book with seemed ease and smiled down at her. "That better?"
"Yup!" Something suddenly occurred to her like a red light alerting spies of something important. "Where's Tsubaki-Chan?" After short inspection she found no trace of her. In fact, looking back Alex couldn't remember Tsubaki in the office or anywhere near them when they entered the office.
Eiji shrugged, pushing up his books. "I think she went to class with her friends already, Ares-Chan." He still looked curious himself, though.
Alex pouted her cheeks and stopped dead in her tracks. Up ahead were stairs. She couldn't handle stairs with her heavy book, bag full of files and her books. Okay, so maybe she could but it seemed very difficult. But she was an ex-cheer leading captain and on the tennis team. She would do it for pride and she would succeed. Though it did suck that Eiji had somehow gotten up the stairs and was walking to the next set while she was in her thoughts.
"Okay! I'm so doing this!" Alex backed up, giving her enough distance for the no doubt greatest sprint she would ever attempt. Those stairs didn't know what they had coming! "ALEX-CHAN..." She stomped her feet and ran them through the sand that was the smooth floor. She was the bull and the stairs were the matador that dared challenge her with her mighty horns. "WILL CRUSH YOU!"
She ran, and ran as fast as she could and(much)sooner than expected came the stairs. She wanted to run up them, that's what she was supposed to do. That's what she planned...but she couldn't. Improvisation was the only thing Alex could do...so she jumped! She jumped high and high. Maybe she would hit her head on the roof!
Her eyes were closed though, so she didn't actually see how high she went, but she clutched her heavy, heavy book in her arms. If there was one thing she knew, though, it was that the book was no doubt weighing her down and she soon landed. She looked around.
Way, way down was the stairs and on the next staircase was Eiji's back. She...did it.
"Yeah! I did it!" Eiji looked down at her, an eyebrow cocked.
"Are you coming, Ares-Chan?" he asked. 'And the world will never know...'(3)
Alex sighed, her chest hurting. Her sore arms pulled up the books and she sighed with every step she took. Suddenly, it seemed like a good idea to pace her steps to make them sounds like a song. It was an extremely lame song, but she was stopped anyway since the stairs, similar to earlier, stopped earlier than expected.
All around were door with signs above them with similar numbers to that of the class schedule. That probably meant that homeroom would have been nearby. Something in Alex's stomach grumbled in a bad way. Had she been nervous? Probably not...she hadn't started burping yet...and then she burped. It was quiet but she still said excuse me to no one in particular. Eiji had entered a room nearby at just that moment so it was pretty convenient and awesome, especially since they both apparently had the same homeroom class-thingy together. She was glad that she would have someone she knew somewhere in her desk area.
That thought inspired another. What was her desk going to be like? Was it one large chair and desk or separate? Could there have been another type of desk that she didn't know about? Was the teacher going to have his own desk? The teacher...could he have been nice? Perhaps he or she was Kenji's half twin!
All of a sudden she felt better. Much better.
For some diluted, demented reason, and the third time today the important object, in this case the door, came up closer than she expected. There were only two things to do in that situation. One, run away to California using her parent's credit card or two, go for broke, take a chance and jump into her new future. She didn't have her parents credit card so she charged straight at the door, her posture straight. She tried her best to strut but there was absolutely no chance that it didn't look silly, especially with the book and stuff in her arms. The door opened and she walked straight forward to a middle aged man who seemed to be the teacher.
She opened her mouth, took in a deep breath of air and prepared to say...well, nothing. She forgot to plan a 'cool and spicy' speech, as she had planned to do.(4) Instead of being embarrassed and feeling sorry for herself she looked up at the teacher.
"What do I do know, Mr. Teacher sir?" She looked up at him, his blank expression and narrow eyes creeping the heck out of her. His hair was a really pretty pepper color though.
"That's Mr. Kazehana to you," he peered down at her. It was kind of creepy and intimidating. "Now, you introduce your self to the class since they didn't get to know you at the beginning."
He ushered her to the middle of the front of the classroom, right next to the large black chalkboard. Curious, evil eyes greeted her. It was really, really scary. Alex hadn't been in front of a crowd in some time, having been along for about two weeks in her room at the Kikumarus, and being ignored for a month at her own home.
"I'm McCarthy Alex from Turnbuckle high school in America. I'm coming here to-I mean from-America. I like the color blue, horses, and Ravens. I hate bunnies, pink and cheerleaders 'cause they're all creepy(5)," she said casually. She honestly didn't care if she offended a cheerleader. Her whole team put her in pink clothes, dyed her hair pink and painted her skin pink with nail polish and laughed at her all day. She couldn't bath in nail polish remover since it was apparently toxic so she had to wait for it to peel off. Her skin was never the same... She grinned at the mass amount of students in their desks. "It's nice to meet you guys!" She started walking but an old man's arm blocked her and came very close to karate chopping off her nose as it came down.
She looked up and saw the teacher guy looking down at her. What was his name again? Hanakusa? It had something to do with flowers...(6)
"No, not yet, Ms. Tatsuya. You have to answer some questions." His tone was like that of an annoyed adult who had to talk to a very small child. It was annoying to the max. More annoying than cheerleaders and bunnies.
'Oh my gosh, pink cheerleader bunnies...NOOO!' A small and very noticeable chill went through her spine. She knew it was noticeable when people were looking at her weird.
Alex looked towards all of the people and noticed that every time she did so her skirt did a sort of twirl that she saw in movies. It was actually sort of fun to look at. Swish swish swish...
"So," the teacher guy clapped his hands and eyed his students with his extremely dark eyes. "Let's answer some questions! Any questions..." A couple of students raised their hands. "Yes, you!"
He pointed to some random student who lowered his hand.
"Yeah, are like, all Americans blond? Do they have blue eyes too? 'Cause I saw in some anime special that they did," he said. Alex knew that she could answer this with ease.
"Nope. Actually I'm not even really blond. I dye my hair!" she picked up some of her hair for no reason at all. "I'm a brunette!"
There was a couple of 'oohs' and 'ahhs'. Weirdly, a couple of people clapped.
"But you didn't answer my question..."
"Next person!" said the flower teacher guy. It was sorta rude how he interrupted the other guy though. Alex was actually gonna answer the question too...
"Okay, so, yeah!"
'Oh no, a prep!' thought Alex, countless memories from cheer-leading popping up like...something that pops really fast.
"So, like, anyway...Where exactly does it allow in your Nation for you to make one of our classmates carry your books for you? I mean, that is so~ lame for you to just force something on someone like that!" For a moment Alex thought that the girl was completely insanio in the brainio but she then realized that the girl was talking about Eiji carrying her book. What the heck did she know? She didn't 'force' him to do anything!
"It's called chivalry on mens part and the kindness to help someone who's about to suffocate under his or hers books." It sounded a bit crude but she still smiled at her own blunt comment. But had she forced him? She couldn't quite remember, actually. She mussed with her short, short dirty blond hair nervously for some reason and looked at all of the people for the next question.
Among the crowd, in the back, was a gray haired girl with glasses that apparently felt that a notebook was more important than the transfer student. Said transfer student wasn't mad, in the least, but her hair was unconsciously(and painfully) tugged.
"Ms. Tatsuya?" With a gasp, her attention returned to the teacher and a cold shiver went through her spine. Was she embarrassed? She couldn't quite tell. Randomly, quite randomly, the Ghost Buster's theme song was stuck inside of the deep crevices of her mind. "Ms. Tatsuya?"
"Yes!" she looked back at Mr. Flower teacher and then randomly chose a student with their had up.
"Are you-"
"Okay, never mind," he clapped his hands together. "Since your our special transfer student you may choose your seat." Apparently it was a big deal since everyone looked pretty amazed. After a very brief moment of silence tons of people were raising their hands and trying to convince her to sit with them with friendly calls. The wanted exchange student smiled, her heart filling up with a sort of strange joy. She was wanted by tons of people! She was that much closer to her dream of being an actress or something else famous!
But, even so, the girl in the back intrigued her with her seemingly shy and/or cold exterior. Luckily, next to the girl was an empty seat.
"I'll sit there," she decidedly firmly, pointing to the seat next to the gray haired girl.
There was a sort of collective group gasp from the girls in the rooms. The boys seemed indifferent, which was curious enough without the one girl that looked ready to bite off Alex's head. Wait...why did that girl want to bite off her head in the first place? The world will never know...
"Okay then,"
Alex walked to her seat and someones hand brushed against her skirt pocket, which was incredibly creepy. But then it happened again and again and again. By the time she reached her desk her pocket, for some reason, felt like it weighed at least two or three pounds. Without looking, she shoved her hand in her pocket and found wads and wads of paper. Her eyes plastered on her teacher, she shoved the papers into the opening of the desk.
There was a tiny skidding sound on her desk. She looked around, both to see who sent and to know if anyone was watching while she wasn't looking at the teacher. No one was. She opened the neatly folded English written note on her desk, the cause of the skidding sound.
If I were you, Tatsuya-san, I would read the notes.
Could it have been a threat? She looked around again for the note passer with no luck.
'Why would someone send me this note...? The world may never know-I have to stop thinking that phrase! Who ya gonna call? Ghost busters! What the heck is wrong with me?'
Finally, she sighed and decided to actually pay attention to Mr. Flower teacher and take notes. He was talking about some guy called General Califigo De Vaillant who had discovered the Treyford islands, one of the most cultural places within Europe. Apparently, it was named after lady Francine Treyford, the daughter of the rich business owner Detforju Treyford, who was running away with her lover Sebastien D'Rodier, a crewman on De Vaillant's ship. It was sort of interesting-oh what the heck!
She looked back to the note and wrote as fast as she could while Mr. Flower teacher was captivated by his own lesson.
What do you mean?
Aha! Alex knew that by writing a response the original note passer would look up and there she was! Her gray haired neighbor!
Cunningly, she moved her hand across her desk in a sweeping motion and the(folded)note landed onto the next girl's desk. Or that was the plan, at least. Instead, she missed by a few inches and watched as the note sunk lamely onto the floor, not far from her own desk. The gray haired girl sighed, pushed up her glasses, and hunched over to pick up the note.
Her eyes scanned over it once before she ripped out a small, neat piece of paper from a notebook. She wrote something in it, then erased it and rewrote it. After seeming to be content with whatever she wrote, she casually flicked it onto Alex's desk, her eyes on Mr. Flower teacher.
'Amazing!' She glanced at the folded paper and opened it without hesitance.
Because our classmates will be pissed if you don't. I'm Matsumoto Konomi, by the way. Sorry if my English sucks, I'm pretty new to it.
Did...could Alex have had a new friend? That was awesome!
Quickly, she thought and then scribbled on the note.
Your English is fine! And-
"Now see here students!" Mr. Flower teacher suddenly announced loudly, right next to Alex's desk. "Look at this example of a student!" Oh my gosh he was pointing at her note. "Taking notes during class!"
"No, it's not-what?" Oh, she shouldn't have said anything in the first place then...
"And in English too so she could always understand it! That's our transfer student!" Scattered claps quietly sounded off about the classroom.
'Talk about a freaking scare...' Whoa, she cursed inwardly. She never did that...Was it really a notable curse though? Hm...She would have something to think about...Wait, no! She couldn't get lost in her thoughts again!
Konomi-Chan gave a very audible sigh of relief next to her and laughed a little, her hand over her heart. It was really cute! Mr. Flowery guy went back to the front of the class, talking about Alex's apparent greatness, and then back to the subject of the Three Treyford islands of La Sierra cove and how the economy was a financial roller coaster and how they managed to bring it back.
Apparently, Konomi-Chan became immersed in Mr. Flower Teacher's lecture and seemed no longer interested in the crime of note passing, sadly. Alex pouted.
Wait. Why was she disappointed? She pushed it away from her mind and looked to Mr. Flower Teacher who started to talk about some other random subject.
~Mira-Heru~
Once class finished for lunch the students tended to leave the room at an extremely fast pace. Alex learned that the hard way when her feet had gotten run over way too many times to count.
"Ow!" Her hand got run over too...
"N-need some help?" asked Konomi-Chan. Her voice was quiet and she looked slightly out of breath. Her long silvery-gray hair was askew. A hand was withdrawn from her pocket and offered to Alex.
"Thanks!" She grabbed the hand and pulled herself up with surprising ease. "I need to get my lunch out of my locker, any chance you know where it is?" Konomi looked over the post-it that was handed to her and nodded.
"Yeah, it's at the other side of the school though," Konomi-Chan looked doubtful, before looking at Alex with a curious expression on her face. And suddenly it occurred to her how boyish Konomi-Chan looked. She may have been prettier without her glasses though. "Fine. I think I can make it there before lunch and before my stomach growls enough to kill me."
Alex giggled.
"Thanks!" And so they ventured out of the classroom and walked for some time until they reached a staircase. Along the way, Alex realized how quiet Konomi-chan was. Her eyes were really out there and her head seemed to be in the clouds. Suddenly, a really stupid grin came onto her face for a mere second before disappearing. What had she been thinking of...? It was a curious question with the only answer available to Konomi-Chan. Still, no matter how easy it was, Alex didn't feel like asking her.
A little good thought was a little good thought and it was nobody's business but the thinker. That was what her mother told. Alex missed her mother...
"We're almost there," Konomi stopped and stood still next to a stair case wall going upward, which tower over her. "But this is where I can go no further. There," She pointed somewhere behind there staircase that was not visible to them. "is dangerous territory." She said nothing else and sat down Indian style in the shadow of the staircase, not at all hidden by the sun light streaming through the windows opposite her.
Alex nodded solemnly, though she didn't get why it was all serious, and walked on, noticing that the locker numbers displayed in small white print over the green lockers were getting closer to the number on the post-it.
'Number 20034, 20040...20056! I'm here!' She grinned at her locker, which had been filled in by Tsubaki earlier on in the day. What had the combination been, she wondered as she stared at the faded mint locker inches away from her face. She looked at the post-it once again.
There was nothing written on it. Perhaps the receptionist lady forgot...? Maybe she was supposed to make it up. It was worth a shot. It probably should have been something she could've remembered well. Her birthday! 10-14-...Maybe her lucky number?...32!
She coded it-or whatever-in and then did it again. It worked! Wait, how did Tsubaki open it?
Alex looked around and found her books and lunch box poorly concealed by a blue bandanna and some tissues. Tsubaki really didn't like her, did she? She looked at her locker, empty, and picked up her large books and stuffed them in haphazardly. They would be organized later.
On the ground and then in her arms was her lunch contained in a baby blue handkerchief with, ugh, bunnies on them. Bunnies for God's sake! Did everyone just assume that she loved them or something? She really didn't. She hated them with a passion. Why? Because they were creepy with their...little albino ways. That wasn't why, though it was a good, valid point. The real reason was that when she was little on one fine Easter day, her mom decided to leave her in a small bunny cage and go somewhere else. It turned out that taking a nap in a bunny cage was not good because they will crowd around you, sleep on you, and go to the bathroom on you and in your hair. Some bit her.
It was terrible. She had to take a bath with all of that stuff, three times until the smell went away. It took five consecutive baths to be cleansed all the way. And that was why she hated bunnies, she concluded.
"Hey! Tatsuya-sempai!" Alex turned her back to the approaching stairwell and looked behind her shoulder where two girls, probably second years, were standing.
"Is it true that you were brave enough to stand up to The Frump during class and tell her not to talk to you?" asked one girl excitedly while the other nodded.
"Um, what? I really don't know what you're talking about." And she really didn't. What the heck was a frump? "What's a frump?"
"You don't know yet?" asked the other incredulously. "It's just the largest rumor of the school!"
"You see," started the other with a sudden ominous voice. "ten years ago a girl was discovered below the school and they brought her up here and she's been going to school as a third year ever since, sempai, and she's really cold and mean towards everyone. She automatically yells at people for the littlest fault and she's probably insane too."
"Who's The Frump?" asked Alex finally, a point at the side of her head pricking slightly.
"Matsumoto Konomi-san, of course." And then Alex was blank. For the first time in a while, her mind was completely empty. It was a rather strange feeling.
"Konomi-Chan?" Her mouth was speaking before she could think the words out. "She's not cold or mean at all." It was the truth. That was all she could think. And suddenly she was angry. "It's really mean of you guys."
"What?" asked one of the girls stupidly. The other had an equally stupid expression on her face. Still, any normal human being knew not to start rumors, right?
"It's not right to spread rumors. Not about someone you don't know. Did you even take that time to get to know her? She's really nice and she's my friend. It's not right to judge her. Why would you just judge someone based on what they looked like? Under the school? That's incredibly stupid. You guys are stupid." And suddenly it was not longer about Konomi. Why did everyone judge Alex too? Assuming that she loved pink and bunnies and all things girly. She didn't. Her hair wasn't even naturally blond. It was dyed. "Why? Why does everyone have to spread rumors? And don't just say some nonsense about it being human nature. I know plenty of good people that don't spread rumors. Konomi-Chan is a good person. Don't just assault someone like that without knowing them." Without sending the girls a glance Alex walked away, just barely realizing what she had done.
She just told two simple gossipers to pretty much F*** off because of some little rumors that they didn't start. It wasn't even about Konomi-Chan. She just vented for no reason. She couldn't turn back and apologize because that would seriously hurt the large amount of pride she had just built herself. She also wanted to look back extremely badly but restrained herself and looked forward, straight ahead to the stairwell. As she got closer she heard sobbing and ran over to the other side.
There was Konomi in the fetal position, her arms over her chest and her slightly wet hair a curtain that hid her face and swept the floor with every sob that Konomi took.
"Konomi...-Chan?" She sat down next to her on the wall and placed her lunch down next to her. "Why are you crying?" Alex couldn't stand it when people cry but her mother always told her to listen and let them cry so that they didn't hold in the sadness and not mess them up psychologically. Konomi looked up after some time, her face in mid-sob as she wrapped her hands around Alex's shoulders and continued to cry.
Alex, somewhere deep inside of her, hoped that it wasn't because of how she just stood up for Konomi without a reason even though they hadn't known each other long. Perhaps the hug was only to prepare for strangling her moments later and catch her off guard.
"Thank you." It was a faint whisper, almost not noticeable by the common passerby that, surprisingly, did not come by. It was an innocent whisper, friendly and shy. Completely not cold and harsh like the other two girl's had claimed. It was a whisper of a friendship to be, probably.
The End for now!
1- I stole the beetle black eyes part from Hagrid from Harry Potter, for some reason. I really don't know why.
2- He was afraid of the lady for some reason and the robot thing was so random that I didn't quite understand it.
3- 'And the world will never know' is from the tootsie roll commercial. It really annoys me though.
4- Cool and spicy is taken from Shugo Chara, which I first read than watched. The anime was good when it stayed on topic but the canon episodes sucked.
5- I've got the same fear-ish as Alex. It all started on a warmer Easter day when my mom put me in the arms of a scary Easter bunny man...
6- Hana means flower.